The People and the Land

   "I love everything he does." Said the aged white man standing on his own outside a supermarket in Rancho Santa Margarita.
"But I know around here I am in the minority." He tells us, as another middle aged white man overhears upon walking into the supermarket, he stops, walks over and shakes the other man's hand and says, "I'm with you." Then stares angrily at Jamie and I.
   It may have been our comment, that we felt Donald Trump was a buffoon, that inspired the other gentleman to reach out in solidarity with his new friend. We smiled, then walked away.
   Maybe that is the sign it is time to leave this remarkable country to its belligerant voters.

   On a quiet Saturday morning we thought a nice drive into a small town sounded ideal. We would collect some groceries, then find another camping spot further along the ridge line to camp and spend it enjoying each others company. We chose a nearby town called Julian and made our way towards it.
   Driving into the main street, we were surprised by the additional traffic. With one main street holding all the local stores, parking had to be sought a block away. We managed to find a small diner that had closed, but had left its wifi on, so we contacted home while sitting on the street corner.
   Afterwards, we felt like a drink and chose a small wine bar with seats outside. The heat was pressing and with no chilled whites, we opted for their sangria. Taking a seat outside, we sparked a conversation with Robert. Robert was visiting his daughter from Rhode Island, he was celebrating his 71st birthday. He had been to his first winery today and it showed a little with his relaxed and happy smile and slightly tired face. It looked as though he had had a lovely birthday.
   While chatting with Robert, we met his daughter Heather. Heather had a house in Julian with her husband and when finding out our plan was to leave and stay somewhere else for the night, she filled us in on what we would be missing. Tonight was a special night, with plenty going on. One hotspot in particular was a local brewery called Nickel Beer Co. that was having a halloween costume party. After that there was another shindig at the Legion Club which would be open all night. Heather was going to both, it all sounded very fun to us so we thanked her for her information and said we would see what we could do.
   In the afternoon we wandered the busy little main street. It definitely had a catering for weekend tourists and seemed to spoil them in home made dessert pies, cider and beer. We stopped off at the Julian Beer hall to sample their wares. It had a fun crowd about with people playing games and plenty of pizza ordering. While relaxing, drinking and crowd watching, we sparked up a conversatioon with a waiter named Mark.
   Mark was an Irish, Canadian, Australian now living in America. When he heard our story and how we stumbled upon this lovely town he said there was one more thing we absolutely had to do. There was a craft beer pub down the other end of town called Nickel. We had to go and try their beer, it was fantastic. Plus they were having a party tonight. Mark told us to ask for Katie, the tattooed, pregnant bartender. She would look after us, plus we could also park our van out the back of their place, they wouldn't mind a bit.
   With two recommmendations to go to Nickel, we couldn't refuse. As we spoke a little more to Mark he gave us another piece of advice while on our travels. "Continue to travel the world, and observe the bigotry and ignorance of white people."
   Mark handed us this advice after we spoke briefly of American Politics. Though he was also quite in tune with Australian politics and asked for an update on who was leading the country. We told him a lot had happened since we left and we had stopped caring.

   With that, we bid our farewell to Julian Beer Co. We made our way back to Big Bird, and did a quick clothing change to prepare ourselves for a night out in the town. We drove towards the other end of town past the post office and there we found Nickel Beer Co. We parked out front and made our way inside, the costume party was well underway.
It certainly had a local, family feel to it with children running riot between the legs of adults. Haunting costumes from ghouls to witches and fancy outfits. We handed our card over the bar and settled in on some stools, we gave cheers to a fantastic watering hole that we could easily call home.
   A couple of beers down and we were approached by a golden lioness, Heather had made it and had come over to say hello. She asked if we had seen her husband Paul yet, he looked like a terrifying crazy clown. We most certainly had, he was scaring all the adults and enthralling all the children. 
   As it turns out, Paul, deservedly won best costume for the evening. He donated his prize of a growler and free refill to us where we could fill up with local beer before we left. We were very grateful, more so for the company and advice to come here.
   That night we slept out the front of the pub in our big bird. We hit the bed pretty hard as we had both thoroughly enjoyed the variety of beer on tap.
   In the morning we decided to have breakfast at a small bakery called, 'Moms' which we noted the day before had a huge line-up outside. With only fruit pies on the menu, Jamie ordered a slice of apple while I had the wild berry. Over a coffee, we sat and enjoyed two delicious hot pies.

   Saying our farewell to Julian, we made a slow drive along highway 76, up towards Palomar Observatory. We found this to be a thoroughly enjoyable walk and inciteful presentation of the history of the Observatory.
We found a campsite nearby and called it an early evening.

   The next day we made our way through Temecula, we were surprised by the vast sprawling housing estates. We hadn't seen any for many miles as we had been skirting most cities. A lot of similar looking, polished houses in large residential developments. It was interesting to us to see while amongst the houses, streets were well maintained. a few hundred metres after the houses end, the quality of the road and landscape deteriorates dramatically.
   We camped just a mile south east of Temecula in a small valley. We met the camp host, she recently had surgery and was taking things very gingerly. We admired the beautiful sunset so which she replied, "it's because of all the smog, that's what my mum always said. "

   The next day we went for a nearby hike up to Dripping Springs, which wasn't dripping. It turned out to be a fair hike, 3 hours in total and some good elevation. We decided to stay at the camp a second night, relax further, use up some more of our items in the van and start a tidy up of our things.

   The following day we made our way West, back to the pacific. It had been awhile since we last saw it, we thought maybe back near Olympia. We drove in to Oceanside, took a stroll of the pier, got our feet wet and relaxed on the sand. With an afternoon snack of fish 'n' chips, we then chose with only two nights remaining to sneak a free truck stop camp for the evening.
   The truck stop came with its pros and cons. On the negatives were the other guests. There were plenty of them coming and going frequently. A positive was the 24 hr toilet access. A negative, trying to ensure the pegs held the curtains closed or else it was an easy view in. Though the biggest positive of all, the view. Behind the bathrooms and up a small hill there were some seats. No one seemed to be at the truck stop long enough to either explore or want to walk over to this area, but once there, you had arguably the best sunset in California. With a eucalypt to the side, overlooking the beach and into the pacific, the deep red sun slowly sank below the horizon.

   After a restless evening, we were up early and headed North to another beach area. We had breakfast there and took a walk along the beach. Signs were out advising a shark had been sighted and the beach was closed. This didnt perturb all the surfers and we sat watching the lifeguard returning on his jeep a few times to please request the surfers 'return to the beach immediately'. They would come in, the lifeguard would drive off, the surfers would head back out.

   We then made our way inland, to Rancho Santa Margarita. We had looked at a nearby campsite online and chose to wander this area first before heading in for the evening. RSM was another delightful community. Clearly it was well supported with funds, there was plenty of artwork and all the buildings had the same spanish casa style. We enjoyed a moments peace in the library, then wandered the stores some more.
   It was here on our way out of one of the supermarkets where our aged gentleman asked if we were registered voters. We told him no and when he picked up on the accent he was interested in finding out more. He liked Australia and had been as close as Thailand before. We appreciated that he knew he was in the minority when he admired 'everything' that Trump does. We didn't remind him of some examples of things Trump had done to test this theory, even though Jamie wanted to. Ian kept it polite, smiled and gave his opinon of DT. That was when another gentleman overheard and came to the defence of the man that had been to Thailand.
   We left it at that, it was here we both agreed with the mid term elections close, we were glad to not be around. We had grown tired of listening to the defamatory attacking advertisements on the radio.

   We made it to O'Neill regional park in the Trabuco Canyon. Our final night with Big Bird, we set about organising our gear, what came with the van, what was purchased and what we would be taking with us. That evening we settled down to a massive feast of marinated beef, tabouli salad and naan bread. So much so, we had to keep a bowl of salad for the following day.
   That night, curtains closed, window slightly open, we laid down on a red torn bed sheet that had been repaired once. Giving our thanks to a friend that had looked after us for 84 days.

   In the morning, we feasted on pancakes, putting as much maple syrup on as the pancake could hold. All sugared up and with big bird tidied up, we headed in to LA.   
   We chose to take the HOV 2+ lane as it flowed much faster than the other five. Filling up with fuel, we returned Big Bird to where it had al begun. Over 13,000km driven, Big Bird settled back into the car lot with his friends, we imagine so they could all catch up on his adventure.

   With some hours to kill before we went to our Airbnb, we chose to spend that time relaxing in a cinema. We both loved Bohemian Rhabsody. Enjoying the 11.30am screening with very few others, we sat there eating our tabouli salad and drinking the remainder of the milk.

   We walked 40 minutes to our Airbnb in Inglewood, feeling the weight of our packs again. Reorganised our backpacks, had a shower, then took a stroll around the neighborhood.
   In the morning we enjoyed the company of our Uber driver who was from Mexico. He wished us well as he dropped us off at the airport. Fairwell to the United States of America, a new part of the World awaits us which we are both terrifyingly excited about.

   It is difficult to sum up our last 3 months here. We may have chosen a route similar to some, while different to others. We remained healthy and well looked after the whole way. We have been amazed at the landscape and humbled by so many people. We are ready for the next chapter, but when we return, I've promised Jamie we will do New York City.

Thanks y'all!